Search

Young massive clusters (YMCs) are dense aggregates of young stars and are often speculated as potential precursors to globular clusters. However, the formation mechanism of massive and compact gas clumps that precede YMCs remains unknown. In this paper, we study the formation of such massive clumps via fast H i gas collisions (∼100 km s ^−1 ) as suggested by recent observations and their subsequent evolution into YMCs by using three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics simulations involving self-gravity and detailed thermal/chemical processes. In particular, the impact of ionization feedback from stellar radiation is included in an approximate fashion where the temperature within the H ii regions is elevated to 10,000 K, while supernova feedback is not included. We examine whether the resulting massive clumps can survive this ionization feedback and evolve into YMCs. Our simulations reveal the emergence of gas clumps that not only possess substantial mass (∼10 ^5 M _⊙ ) but also sufficient compactness (∼5 pc). Notably, these clumps exhibit significantly higher escape velocities compared to the sound speed of the H ii region, indicating effective gravitational retention of gas against feedback-induced evaporation. Consequently, these conditions foster efficient star formation within the massive gas clumps, ultimately leading to their evolution into YMCs. We also perform simulations involving lower-velocity gas collisions, approximately 15 km s ^−1 , typical shock velocities induced by galactic superbubbles. In contrast to the high-velocity collisions, we find that molecular cloud formation does not occur in the case of 1 cm ^−3 gas collision, while YMC formation is observed in the presence of denser gas of 10 cm ^−3 . However, the formation of YMCs requires compression periods exceeding 10 Myr in these cases, indicating a potential preference for gas collisions driven by intergalactic interactions rather than galactic superbubbles for YMC formation.

We study the formation of Population III stars by performing radiation hydrodynamic simulations for three different initial clouds extracted from cosmological hydrodynamic simulations. Starting from the cloud collapse stage, we follow the growth of protostars by accretion for ∼10 ^5 yr until the radiative feedback from the protostars suppresses the accretion and the stellar properties are nearly fixed. We find that Population III stars form in massive and wide binary/small-multiple stellar systems, with masses >30 M _⊙ and separations >2000 au. We also find that the properties of the final stellar system correlate with those of the initial clouds: the total mass increases with the cloud-scale accretion rate, and the angular momentum of the binary orbit matches that of the initial cloud. While the total mass of the system in our simulations is consistent with our previous single-star formation simulations, individual masses are lower due to mass sharing, suggesting potential modification in the extent of feedback from Population III stars in the subsequent evolution of the Universe. We also identify such systems as mini-binaries embedded in a wider outer multiple-star system, which could evolve into progenitors for observed gravitational wave events.

The formation of molecular clouds out of H i gas is the first step toward star formation. Its metallicity dependence plays a key role in determining star formation throughout cosmic history. Previous theoretical studies with detailed chemical networks calculate thermal equilibrium states and/or thermal evolution under one-zone collapsing background. The molecular cloud formation in reality, however, involves supersonic flows, and thus resolving the cloud internal turbulence/density structure in three dimensions is still essential. We here perform magnetohydrodynamics simulations of 20 km s ^−1 converging flows of warm neutral medium (WNM) with 1 μ G mean magnetic field in the metallicity range from the solar (1.0 Z _⊙ ) to 0.2 Z _⊙ environment. The cold neutral medium (CNM) clumps form faster with higher metallicity due to more efficient cooling. Meanwhile, their mass functions commonly follow ${dn}/{dm}\propto {m}^{-1.7}$ at three cooling times regardless of the metallicity. Their total turbulence power also commonly shows the Kolmogorov spectrum with its 80% in the solenoidal mode, while the CNM volume alone indicates the transition toward Larson’s law. These similarities measured at the same time in units of the cooling time suggest that the molecular cloud formation directly from the WNM alone requires a longer physical time in a lower-metallicity environment in the 1.0–0.2 Z _⊙ range. To explain the rapid formation of molecular clouds and subsequent massive star formation possibly within ≲10 Myr as observed in the Large/Small Magellanic Clouds, the H i gas already contains CNM volume instead of pure WNM.